This blog is intended as a bulletin board to show the quilts I've been making on my vintage and treadle sewing machines. My husband and I collect antique and vintage sewing machines and I use them to make all my quilts. Here are some of the results.

Saturday, 19 September 2009

Cottage Retreat!

Five of us (Joyce, Liz, Cathy, Ina and me) from my local small quilting group were able to go to a cottage up north for four days of sewing. A good time was had by all and a lot was accomplished. What fun we had. It was sooo peaceful up there. The view was incredible and inspired us to creative sewing :-). This is the cottage we stayed at:

The view from the dock across the small lake:

We sewed in the diningroom. We set it up so we could all sew together and set up ironing and cutting stations in the kitchen, livingroom and bedroom. Here is the diningroom with the large windows overlooking the woods...no traffic, no people (except us!) and lovely sunshine most of the time we were there.Cathy (standing), Liz and Joyce keeping those machines humming!

Cathy is working on a coffee themed table runner she designed herself:

Liz sewing the binding down by hand on her table runner:

Joyce and Liz are sisters and kept us laughing with their sisterly bantering and memories of growing up in Winnipeg! Liz came all the way from Winnipeg to join us:

Had to make sure there was at least one photo of me to prove I was there :-). It was very cold the first day we were here so it was nice to wear 'mittens' while quilting!!

Ina is working on a little tote bag inspired by one Liz brought along. She used her beautiful Pfaff embroidery machine to decorate the seams. Liz even got to use her machine for her second little tote bag:

We had a Scrabble game set up and took turns playing between sewing. We managed to get three games completed and the score between the top few was very close keeping the final result a mystery til it was all over. The last day, we made a crossword puzzle with all our names and quilting words. We did use up all the letters, but they didn't all connect, and, no, we did not start in the middle "like you're supposed to". We were a rebellious lot, balking against the rules LOL

We had all our lunches out on the deck in the lovely warm sunshine:

Enjoying our last dinner together...check out that view of the lake from the kitchen window!

I found a box at a yard sale recently, containing these six little mini puzzles of quilts! They are only 7" x 7" and we thought they might be too easy. But, these little puzzles were anything but easy. It took us awhile to get the six together...very enjoyable activity when we needed a break from sewing. Cheap entertainment for 50c! There were only two pieces missing which was noted on the box when I bought them.Joyce took care of some decorating and picked some gorgeous wild flowers for our centerpiece:

On the last evening, Liz got out her knitting. You can see the original little tote bag she brought along on this photo:

We even had a design wall! Cathy hung up her large piece of batting and it came in very handy for hanging up our blocks and table runners to decide on the next step or colour:

Here are the projects which we finished: We were all in charge of two specific meals, brought one homemade, baked item for our coffee breaks and one person bought all the drinks and breakfast items and we shared the costs for that. It worked very well with everyone pitching in to help. We had wonderful meals! Now time to get back to normal. It was very inspiring to work together, see everyone's projects and brainstorm together on colours and designs.

6 comments:

Wow! You ladies were sure productive. I can't believe you made all that while you were at the cottage. They are beautiful all laid out like that. I especially like the one with the circles on it. Very nice!

Mary-Kay: Some of the tops were finished already and were quilted there...the one with the circles and the one with the appliqued flowers were mine and I did all the quilting on it there and sewed the bindings on and sewed them down by hand. They were UFO's that have been around for awhile!! We did have a great time!

About Me

I have been quilting since 1989 and do most of my quilting on a 1951 Singer 15-88 treadle sewing machine. My husband and I collect antique and vintage sewing machines and enjoy finding, cleaning, restoring and sewing on them together. Well, my husband doesn't do much sewing :-). But, when we demonstrate machines at museums or other shows, we have a stack of patches ready. Someday, there will be enough four patches to make into a quilt!